The University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law announced the launch of the Gibson-Banks Center for Race and the Law, with the goal to advance racial justice through education, advocacy and research.
“The Gibson-Banks Center for Race and the Law is a vital addition to our law school and to the community,” said Dean Renée M. Hutchins. “The Center will provide a critical space for scholarship, engagement, and action on issues of race and the law. It will also serve as a resource for students, lawyers, and community members who are working to advance racial justice.”
The Center will offer courses, workshops and community conversations on race and the law. Advocacy work will include litigation in state and federal courts and agencies and promoting policy and legislative change at the local, state and federal levels. Research will include legal scholarship focused on race and intersectionality with Maryland Carey Law faculty and fellows conducting the expansive research.
The Center was named in honor of Maryland Carey Law professors and civil rights pioneers Larry Gibson and Taunya Lovell Banks.
Gibson is a legal historian who has written one of the definitive biographies of Justice Thurgood Marshall. On the faculty since 1974, he teaches a range of courses at the law school and has curated several exhibits on the history of Black lawyers in Maryland.
Banks taught her final class at the law school in fall 2021. She was the first tenured Black woman on the law school faculty. She exposed systemic sexism and racism and inspired generations of students and colleagues to dedicate their legal careers to the fight for social justice.
